To My Daughter
by Laurelleaf
Summary: There is no dark without light. There is no wrong without right. If rules are made to be broken, Can you break them if there are no rules? You want Mara to be a shadow, she must be taught by Light and Dark. A little story on Mara Jade's origins.
1. The Letter

To My Daughter...  
  
Written by Lauri Leaf  
  
I do not own any Star Wars characters.  
  
To my darling daughter,   
  
Little One, by the time you get this letter, you will have forgotten about your father, and your mother... you will have been raised by a good family, with little brothers, or sisters. I hope you grow up to look like your mother, with her flaming hair. I pray you grow up without any fear of the empire, without it touching you. I pray, and hope, that you, my darling daughter, live to be the best person you possibly can.  
  
Daughter, I want you to know why I gave you up, why I could not raise you.   
  
I am a Jedi, and the threat of death hovers over my head. I may not survive this dark rising, and neither will any force-born. A jedi's child is so rare, it is instant death, or a life of dark. So my child, you could not be raised by a jedi, not with this price on our heads. If your mother was here, she would have gone into hiding with you, at least you would have had her.  
  
I will miss you, miss seeing your first steps, hearing your first words, I won't see you roll over for the first time, or crawl. I won't be able to sing you lullabies, or read you bedtime stories. I will miss your first scraped knee, your first cold. I won't be able so see you grow up, or to see you married, or to see your babies. I hope, that you never have to go through this my child, giving up your little one.  
  
Mara, I know you won't remember me, or your mother, you won't remember us holding you, and rocking you to sleep. You may not even know who we are, we may just be nameless, or you may not even know we ever existed. If nothing else, look at these holos, and know we loved you.  
  
With all of my love,   
  
Obi Wan Kenobi  
  
  
  
Obi Wan folded the piece of paper, and put it and the two holos in a small envelope. He put the envelope in the baby's basket, smoothing her short red hair. He bent and kissed his daughter's forehead, for the last time, knowing he would never see her again. "May the force be with you, my little one." He whispered, his voice breaking, his grief evident.  
  
"Lenna, take care of my daughter, raise her well." He told the woman standing off to the side. She nodded, "General, Mara will be taken care of, and loved. I promise you this, I'd die for this child." She said.   
  
"You must go now, they will will be hear soon." He said, taking one last look at his child, before turning to exit the ship.  
  
"General..., Master, take care." She said, as the ramp retracted, and the door slid down.  
  
Obi Wan Kenobi stood, and watched the ship take off, the future uncertain.  
  
***  
  
Lenna Jade rocked the little baby in her arms,   
  
"Can we touch the soul of heaven  
  
Can we unite a sacred lesson   
  
Every child creates a skylight of beauty  
  
Can you hear cathedrals falling  
  
All the universe is calling  
  
Cry a single cello  
  
From your heart  
  
Since the world has lost her way  
  
Loneliness   
  
Journey endlessly  
  
Yet the promised chance remains  
  
Gift of what could be  
  
So let the children remember the sun  
  
Let them dance, let them soar  
  
For their lives have begun  
  
Let the children engender the rain  
  
As the river runs through fields   
  
Forever subsiding their pain  
  
Prayer  
  
Every voice along the shoreline  
  
Standing still within time  
  
Spinning unresolved  
  
Walking  
  
As each season passes  
  
Through wonderland of looking glasses  
  
The secret garden shines, because you,  
  
Gentle flower, don't fade away  
  
Sweet innocence still harvesting  
  
In the faith of golden dreams  
  
Where one love lives eternally  
  
Let the children remember the sun  
  
Let them dance let them soar  
  
For their lives have begun  
  
Let the children engender the rain  
  
As the river runs through fields  
  
Forever's subsiding their pain  
  
Prayer  
  
Prayer  
  
Prayer... prayer  
  
Bless the children for they are the light  
  
They are the truth of spirit in flight  
  
Yes the children engender the rain  
  
As the river runs through life  
  
Healing their pain  
  
You can trust with your heart but for time  
  
Sweet angel, conceive you have  
  
Forever and always believed   
  
Prayer  
  
Prayer  
  
Oh  
  
Prayer" She sang, rocking back and forth, until the child was peacefully asleep. She stood, and walked to the cradle, laying the infant down, and tenderly covering her with a sea green blanket. She rubbed the baby's stomach, as she moved, and settled into a deep slumber. Lenna turned, and left the child to sleep in her pale green room.   
  
She across thick carpet, to the living area, and settled on the couch with a book. She read and soon fell asleep, book falling to the floor. As she slept, she dreamed...  
  
Bang, bang. The knock on the door startled her. She jumped up, and walked over to the door. She opened it, "Can I help you?" And then she neither said, nor saw, nor heard anything ever again.  
  
The men in the white armor walked in, stepping over the woman's body, and the blood pooling on the floor. A teenage girl followed, her warm blue eyes taking in the sight before her. Sorrow flickered in them, and then it was gone. She hugged her flight jacket close to her, and walked to the back of the house, where the child was wailing.   
  
She sometimes wondered why it was her calling to bring death, why the force wanted her to raise this infant. She walked to the cradle, and picked up the baby, who stopped crying. "Hullo, little one. Little Mara Jade." 


	2. The Wise and Pure Lightbearer

To my daughter...   
  
Chapter Two:  
  
A/N: Well, This was supposed to be a one shot story, but I've decided to continue it, thanks to the fact that I actually got reviews. *Yay!* Last chapter, I forgot to put a disclaimer on the song, Prayer, by Celine Dion. So now I'm saying I don't own it, even though it is one of my favorites. For my first Chapter, I got three reviews, if I get Five for this chapter I'll update again, if not, it could be a while. Now on to the disclaimer.  
  
Disclaimer: I Do Not own Star Wars, or Mara Jade. Nor do I own any of the songs I use. I'll try to remember to put the name of the songs and who sings them at the end of the chapter. I do own Kyna Aileen Katja (Wise, light-bearer, pure, or wise and pure light bearer.) So if you'd like to use her, please ask.  
  
"Hullo Little One, Little Mara Jade." The girl said, lifting the child out of her cradle, and holding her close. "I am sorry, Little One, that I've caused you pain, but I won't hurt you again, not ever again." She smiled as the infant gave a sweet little yawn, and fell asleep.  
  
"We can go now, our work here is done." She said, turning, no one seeing the sorrow hidden in her eyes.   
  
"Yes, Ma'am." The leader of the men in white armor said, turning, and leading his men, and the girl holding the child, out of the room, and into the waiting ship.  
  
"Well, Mara, I guess I'm taking care of you now, so, what are you going to call me when you get bigger, huh? Not Mama, don't want to take her place. Um, Ailee?"   
  
Mara yawned.   
  
"Guess that's a no. How 'bout Ky'Ai, that's what my little sister called me." The baby smiled.   
  
The girl grinned, "Ok, Ky'Ai it is. So, little one, how about some lunch, and then a nap."   
  
Kyna Aileen Katja, care taker to Mara Elysia Jade, walked into the kitchen, to warm up her charge's first bottle. "So, how about we sing while this warms? What should I sing? Wise old King?"   
  
"There was a wise old king, who had ten thousand men, he marched them up a hill, and he marched them down again. When you're up, you're up, when you're down, you're down, and when you're only halfway up, you're neither up nor down." She sang, while walking and bouncing the baby. When she stopped singing, the baby started crying.   
  
" All night, all day, Angels watching over me, my lord, all night, all day, angels watching over me." She sang, trying an oldy, but goody. The baby hushed, until Aileen stopped singing.  
  
"Um... here we go.  
  
Fly, fly little wing  
  
Fly beyond imagining  
  
The softest cloud, the whitest dove  
  
Upon the wind of heaven's love  
  
Past the planets and the stars  
  
Leave this lonely world of ours"The bottle was warm now, and Aileen fed Mara, while gently rocking her and singing.  
  
"Escape the sorrow and the pain  
  
And fly again   
  
Fly, fly precious one  
  
Your endless journey has begun  
  
Take your gentle happiness  
  
Far too beautiful for this  
  
Cross over to the other shore  
  
There is peace forevermore  
  
But hold this mem'ry bittersweet  
  
Until we meet"  
  
Mara finished her bottle, and Aileen lifted her to her shoulder, and patted her back until she burped and began rocking her.   
  
Fly, fly do not fear  
  
Don't waste a breath, don't shed a tear  
  
Your heart is pure, your soul is free  
  
Be on your way, don't wait for me  
  
Above the universe you'll climb  
  
On beyond the hands of time  
  
The moon will rise, the sun will set  
  
But I won't forget   
  
Fly, fly little wing  
  
Fly where only angels sing  
  
Fly away, the time is right  
  
Go now, find the light" The girl, finished now, smiled down at the baby in her arms. She headed toward the cabin she shared with Mara, and laid the little one down in her crib. "Sleep well, Little One, tomorrow will shatter this peace." Tomorrow the innocent child would meet pure evil.  
  
****  
  
Aileen, the light-bearer, was going to face her toughest challenge yet, getting the Emperor, as he was called now, to allow her to raise Mara. The girl had dressed in tight black pants, light boots, a purple halter top, and her long black Jedi/sith robe. She had allowed her waist length blond hair to stay down, and had taken off her lightsaber, for once. Approaching the sith lord with a weapon was not a good idea, you could be killed with your own weapon.   
  
"Hey, baby, you ready to go?" She asked Mara, whom she had dressed in a little white gown, as if she were going to a christening. The baby gurgled.   
  
Song is Fly, by Celine Dion 


	3. Meeting Dark, and A Not So Dark Knight

To My Daughter...  
  
Chapter Three: Meeting Evil, And A Not So Evil Dark Knight.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Mara Jade, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, or any other characters that you recognize. I do own Aileen, and Bryz Dewates.   
  
A/N: Well, I'm up to five reviews now, and it's been a week since I updated, so I'm updating now. However, I'm a sophomore in High School, so after the 7th, updating will slow to every other weekend(when I'm at my dad's, my mom hogs the computer.) I'm trying to put up a one shot on Obi Wan and Riannon (Aileen's mother, Obi's Lover), but it may take a few weeks to finish it. Oh, and thanks to all those who reviewed my first two chapters.   
  
Love,   
  
Laurelleaf  
  
"All right Mara, you have to be good in there, no crying, or fussing, or unneeded wiggling. Got It?" Aileen told the baby, fighting her nervousness as she walked down the marble hallway to the Emperor's throne room.   
  
"Aileen!" A young man ran up, his black hair a mess.  
  
"Bryz. Is there a problem?" Aileen asked pausing a minute, and changing the arm that held the baby, who had fallen asleep, her little mouth open, making little whistling noises with every breath.  
  
"No, I just wanted to come too, make sure you were all right." He said, smoothing his tousled hair.   
  
"Bryz, I will be fine, it's Little One here who I'm worried about, he may not let me keep her. I'd hate to think of what will happen to her if someone else raised her." Aileen said, glancing at the baby in her arms.   
  
He smiled at her, "He'll let you keep her, he has to, it is the will of the Force, even the Emperor won't go against it, yet. I'm just worried about what will happen when he finally does go against it. I'm worried about you, he has no choice right now, but to allow you your life, but what will happen when he finally tires of you, tires of the Force running his life." He said, reaching out to touch Aileen's shoulder.   
  
She sighed, "Then the Light-bearers will hide, and their light will not glow. Until then, I will do as I am meant to, and spread my light. It is all that I can do." She looked at him, looking into his hazel eyes. "If you are coming with me, you'd best straighten your robe, and tuck your shirt in. And hurry, we don't have much time."  
  
Bryzen Dewates, a Light-bearer and Aileen's Force-Mate (soul mate), looked down and tucked his cream shirt into his black slacks, and straightened his brown robe, that had gotten tangled during his run. He grinned, catching his mate's eyes on his body. "Better?"  
  
"Much" She said grinning, and shifting the sleeping baby to her shoulder. She reached out with her free arm, and hugged him tight. "Let's go."  
  
They walked together to the huge, ornate, and deadly doors. The crimson cloaked guards stood to attention. "Names?"  
  
" Lady Kyna Aileen Katja, Light-bearer. Lord Bryzen Dewates, Light-bearer. Mara Elysia Jade, a harmless infant." Aileen stated, rather unkindly. "Now will you let us to our business, we are expected, you know. Or is your job to make the Emperor's Chosen late?" She added, looking rather annoyed, that she, of all people, had been held up. Or so the guard thought.  
  
He chose not to respond, and turned, and opened the doors, and walked through, announcing as he went. "Lady Kyna Aileen Katja, Lord Bryzen Dewates, and Mara Elysia Jade. Milord." He bowed, and at a gesture from Palpatine, turned and walked away.  
  
"So, you have brought the child. Come, let me see her." He said, his voice like gravel, telling of all the evil he had caused, all the evil he had ordered. His price to pay for his evil, was the decaying of his body, it decayed like a dead man's.  
  
Aileen walked up to his throne, and knelt, moving the sleeping baby to the cradle of her arms. At some point the baby had grabbed some of Aileen's waist length hair, and she kept a hold on it still. As Aileen looked at the sleeping child, she could not help but wonder, such innocence, what would happen when she was exposed to evil, to the dark, would she become the shadow the Emperor wanted? Or would she be something else?  
  
"She is the one. Good take her to the nursery, the droids will care for her." The Dark said, sitting back in his throne.  
  
"Droids, sir?" Aileen asked, incredulously. She stepped back. "Sir, I'd like to ask for a boon. I've done all the you've asked, to the letter. I'd like to raise the Little One."  
  
The Dark laughed, "You, why should I allow that?"  
  
The girl grinned, he was fighting a losing battle. "Dark is not dark without Light, because then people would be indifferent. Evil is only evil when accompanied by good, otherwise there is only indifference, one must know the boundaries to cross them. Wrong and Right don't exist without each other. Rules are made to be broken, it is said, but if there are no rules, how can one break them? Mara is meant to be a shadow, but to be that, she must be taught by both the Light and the Dark, I am the Light, need I say more?" She finished, holding the child close to her.  
  
"The Force tells you this?" The Emperor asked, standing up.  
  
"Yes, it does." The girl stated.  
  
"Does it also tell you that you should raise the girl?"  
  
"It does."  
  
"And if I say no?" The Dark asked.  
  
"You disobey the Force..." Aileen started.  
  
"You die." Bryzen finished. He grimaced, he'd seen that kind of death before, it was not pleasant. The man who had died had spent hours in pain, his skin blistering as though from a internal fire. The blisters had popped, and oozed green pus, then scabbed over. The man's whole body had begun to swell, and the scabs cracked and bled. The man had begun to vomit by that point, he vomited blood. Soon blood was oozing from his eyes, his nose and his ears. Not much after that, blood was oozing from every pore in the man's body. His body rose in the death seizure, his body supported only by his toes and his head, over a growing pool of crimson blood, life's blood. It rose and rose, until eventually Crack, and the man's life had ended. Even after he died, his body still grew hotter and hotter, until it literally exploded into a cloud of ashes.  
  
"Fine, then, raise the girl, but let me remind you, if I could, you and that mate of yours would be dead, along with that child, Hand, or no Hand, all Jedi should be destroyed." The Dark said, his gaze resting on the sixteen year- old girl, holding the innocent baby in her arms. The boy stepped forward, and wrapped his arms around his family.   
  
"Are you done, M'lord?" He asked, his tone dangerous. No one threatened his family, and that now included Mara.   
  
"Yes, Quite done, you are dismissed." The Dark lord said, turning his back to them. He would not be interested in Mara for several years.  
  
Bryzen turned his family around, and escorted them out. After they had walked a while, he said, "Let's go home and change, and then go buy some things for Mara. She needs a crib, and a chair, and baby clothes."   
  
"Wonderful idea. Let's be the family we are." Aileen said, beaming at the idea.   
  
"So, how should we decorate her room? Pinks, Purples, blues, greens?" She asked, handing the baby to Bryzen. She walked backwards, talking as she went.  
  
"I say why not decorate in all four." Bryzen said, laughing at his mate's change of mood.  
  
"Sounds good to me, what do you think, Mara? All four colors? I think that will suit you. I think that will be perfect. We'll get you a crib set in lavender and green. And we'll paint the walls in waves of each color. We'll buy you a cool lamp, and teddy bears, and stuffed animals, and a baby monitor, so we can hear you when you cry. We'll buy bottles, and milk, and infant cereal. We'll have to get you clothes too, of course, and..." She stopped there because she had run into a man dressed in black armor. "Sorry Anakin, I wasn't looking. Oh, you have to meet Mara." She reached out, and grabbed the stunned man's arm, and pulled him over to Bryzen and Mara.   
  
"Anakin, meet Mara, the Emperor's Hand, and currently, my adopted daughter." She said, handing the baby to the armored man. He held her gently, as if she were glass. She looked up at him, and smiled.   
  
Anakin gasped. "So, this is what it's like." He said, thoughtfully, his voice hissing.  
  
"What's like?" Bryzen asked, watching the armored man carefully. This was his daughter.  
  
"It's what it's like, to hold a little one in your arms, and to know you have to keep her safe, and that she can't take care of herself." The dark man replied, a little bit of light showing through. He sighed, and held her out. "Fate has decided this is not for me, even though I wished. Here, take her." He said. Aileen took the baby from him, and held her close.  
  
"What do you mean, it's not for you?" She asked, rocking the baby gently, swaying back and forth.  
  
"My wife was pregnant, she miscarried." He said, sadness in his mechanical voice, if that were possible.  
  
"Oh, Anakin, I'm sorry. But maybe that just meant the Force has another plan for you. Maybe, when Mara gets older, you could watch her for us, so that we could get some time alone?" She said, her voice healing.  
  
"Maybe." was all that he said. He turned and walked away. Aileen and Bryzen could feel his sorrow.  
  
"Do you really think that he'll watch her?" Bryzen asked.  
  
"I have know idea, but it was worth a try. Now, let's go change." Aileen said, they had been walking and had finally made their way home. 


End file.
